


Worse than I Imagined

by MsChievous



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, Poor Prompto, Prompto doesn't think its a big deal, Sickfic, Spoiler alert: it's a big deal, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2019-03-09 18:58:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13487724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsChievous/pseuds/MsChievous
Summary: Prompto gets a little sick, but it's just a cold, right?





	Worse than I Imagined

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo! This is a fic written for itsketagon on Tumblr, as part of a follower giveaway. The drawing accompaniment she also won can be found [here](https://stuck-in-ffxv-hell.tumblr.com/post/170120674820/the-finished-drawing-for-itsketagon-and-also)

“Hey, Prompto, Eos to Prompto, you in there?” Noctis waved his hand in front of his friend’s face.

Prompto blinked slowly, then turned to smile at his friend. “Yeah, dude, just kinda tired,” he said. “I think I’m coming down with something.”

Noctis furrowed his eyebrows and placed the back of his hand against Prompto’s forehead. “Yeah, you do have a bit of a fever. Do you want to go to the nurse’s office?” 

“Nah,” Prompto said, shaking his head, “I think it’s just a little bit of a cold or something. I’ll be fine.”

“You sure?” 

Prompto waved the concern away. “Totally, dude, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me. I’m sure I can just sleep in for a couple hours tomorrow and I’ll be right as rain,” He said with a grin that was only slightly forced.

Noctis stared at Prompto. “How the fuck can you be so perky when you’re sick? I can barely do it when I’m healthy and not tired.”

“What can I say? It’s my naturally sunny disposition!” 

“Seriously, I don’t think you’re human. Are you an alien?” Noctis asked, peering at Prompto’s face in mock suspicion. 

“Oh, no,” Prompto clapped his hands to either side of his face, “I’ve been found out! Now I’m afraid I’ll have to kill you. Sorry, bud, I don’t make the rules.”

“Hey, dying sounds pretty cool right now. It means I’ll get out of math class.”

Prompto broke out into laughter, “Okay,  _ now _ who’s being morbid?”

“Is it still morbid if it’s honest?”

“Dude, I think it’s  _ more _ morbid if you’re honest,” Prompto replied, trying to cough away a tickle in his throat.

“Fair enough,” Noctis shrugged.

 

***

 

With a groan, Prompto laced up his shoes. Why did his muscles feel like he had just done a whole-body workout the day before? He hurried out the door before he convinced himself to just not go running today. After all, it always got easier to keep going when he got going.

Or, it was usually. He jogged to a stop at an intersection, almost bent over at the waist. Maybe… maybe he didn’t have to run today. Maybe he could just walk his usual route. That would be fine, right? Yeah. He could walk.

So he traced his usual path, taking a shortcut across the bridge to shorten his route, otherwise, he’d be out here forever. 

Even still, by the end of his walk, he felt like he was going to combust. He had long since forgotten about wiping away the sweat on his forehead and had instead tried to focus on keeping one foot in front of the other.

It wasn’t too bad, all things considered. He had still managed to get exercise in, and he had made it home, and now he could take a shower and collapse on his bed for an hour before he should probably get started on his homework.

His body protested the entire way to the shower, but its protests died down as he stepped into the hot water. “Thank the Six,” he murmured, rubbing a particularly sore spot on the back of his neck. Seriously. He didn’t remember doing much yesterday at all. How was it possible that he was this sore? 

Maybe it was just a weird symptom of his cold or something. That would be just his luck, wouldn’t it? 

Eventually, his shower had to end, and he swiped a glass of water from the faucet before sitting at his desk and pulling out his homework. He had a long day of homework ahead of him. He might as well get started now.

 

***

 

A few hours later, Prompto was hunched over his math homework, trying to puzzle out the solution to what was  _ supposed _ to be an easy problem set. But it seemed like his brain just didn’t want to cooperate.

Ugh, being sick  _ sucked _ .

He pushed himself away from his desk, glancing at the clock. Damn, was it only two in the afternoon? It felt later than that. Hell, he would probably go to bed right now if he didn’t still have to read two chapters of a book and finish a science lab report before school tomorrow. Thank the Six today was an in-service day or he would never have gotten through all of it.

He refilled his glass of water and paced around his living room, trying to get the blood flowing back to his brain, but only succeeding in tiring himself out. 

Maybe he should just take tomorrow off? Nah, it wasn’t that bad. Besides, tomorrow was Friday, then he’d have the whole weekend to relax. ...Except for his training on Saturday. But he couldn’t get out of that. He wouldn’t want to see the disappointed look on Cor’s face.

Pressing his lips into a firm line, Prompto sat back down on his desk, forcing his muddled brain to work through the rest of this worksheet before he could have another break.

It was almost as exhausting as the walk he had gone on, but he finally finished the math problems. The reading he could probably flake on for today. After all, it was only reading, but with the lab report, his teacher would know right away if he didn’t do it.

So he forced his way through that, though he knew it was going to be utter shit, at least it was done, and he could take a break to eat dinner. 

But as he opened his refrigerator, he realized that he wasn’t all that hungry. He shouldn’t be that surprised, after all, he hadn’t really done much exercise that day. So he shut the door to the fridge and grabbed his phone.

He shot a quick text to Noct before turning on the T.V. He would watch T.V. for a half an hour to let his brain recharge, and then he might as well slog his way through at least one chapter of the reading for tomorrow.

 

***

 

The next time Prompto opened his eyes, his house was completely dark, save for the backlight of the television. With a groan, he scrambled for his phone. What the fuck? What time was it?

Four in the morning. What the fuck. Had he really slept that long? Shit, he had been planning on doing part of the reading for tomor-today. 

Should he get started on it now? He was already awake. Well, as awake as one could be at four in the morning. He might as well. 

He grabbed a glass of water to soothe his sore throat (yet another symptom of this damn cold) and plodded over to his desk. His homework was still strewn across his desk, but he quickly stuffed it in his backpack. 

Okay, that was done, now he could get to reading. Come on, brain, get working.

But the only thing that was really working was his throat, though that was currently being torn apart by a hacking cough.

He rubbed the back of his head, where the ache was starting to throb now. He could hold it together for several more hours. He’d held it together for this long, after all. How hard could a few more hours be?

 

***

“Seriously, dude, just go lay down in the nurse’ office.” Noctis leaned back in his chair, poking Prompto in the shoulder to get his attention.

“Nah, it’s fine,” Prompto said, trying to avoid wincing when Noctis’ finger sent a wave of pain through his arm. “It’s just a bit of a cold. Besides, if I’m not at school, who’s gonna take notes for you while you nap all day?” He teased, tugging on a strand of Noctis’ hair in return.

He was about to continue, but he was cut off by a series of coughs that left him nearly doubled over.

“Because you  _ totally _ sound fine,” Noctis said, rolling his eyes.

“Dude, it’s just a cold. This is pretty much the worst it’s gonna get. I might as well power through it so I can get to tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Noctis said with a shrug, “But, hey, if you think you’re gonna be too sick to hang out tomorrow, then I won’t take it personally.”

“I’ve been looking forward to that,” Prompto replied, “I think I’d have to be actively dying to miss-” His words dissolved into another fit of coughs.

Noctis laughed. “It sounds like you’re already doing that, bro,” He said, clapping Prompto lightly on the back.

Prompto just groaned and wiped his hand across his mouth. “Yeah, seems like it. Do me a favor, buddy, and have them play Panic at the Disco at my funeral. Oh! And bury me by that chocobo post out in Duscae.”

“Y’know, there’s something kinda morbid about discussing your own funeral with a smile on your face.”

“Would you rather I talk about  _ yours _ ?” Prompto asked with a wink.

Noctis snorted, but the bell for the next class rung before he could reply, and they both turned to the front to pay attention to the teacher.

 

***

 

The next day, Prompto woke up to a knocking on his door. He scrambled to his feet, ignoring his body’s protests. He glanced at the clock.  _ Shit _ , it was twelve thirty. He had promised to meet Noct at noon.

“Be there in a minute!” He called, ignoring how his voice grated across his throat. He managed to muffle his coughs long enough to pull on a decent pair of pants and to throw on a shirt. He stumbled his way to the door and opened it, squinting his eyes against the glare of the past-noonday sun.

“You look like shit,” Noctis said, raising an eyebrow.

“Thanks, I tried,” Prompto replied. “You ready to go?”

“You’re not wearing shoes,” Noctis pointed out.

Prompto stared at him for a moment, then looked down at his shoe-less feet. “Oh,” He said.

“Yeah,  _ oh _ ,” Noctis said, “Yeah, we’re not going out today. Come on, we can play a video game or something.”

Prompto didn’t quite have the energy to disagree as Noctis let himself into Prompto’s house, dragging the two of them to Prompto’s living room. 

“You should probably sit on the other side of the couch,” Prompto suggested between hacking coughs. 

Noctis gave a small smile, “Yeah, I don’t think I really want what you have.”

“You’re telling me,” Prompto groaned, flopping a hand over his eyes. “ _ I _ don’t want what I have.”

“So what do you want to play?” 

“King’s Knight, duh!”

Noctis slid the disk into the game station and handed Prompto a controller, then settled himself on the far edge of Prompto’s well-worn couch.

Despite how poorly Prompto was performing today, Noctis seemed to be patient enough with him, even offering to grab him water when his voice started giving up. 

Unfortunately, four ‘o’ clock came around all too soon, and Prompto set down his controller. “Okay, I gotta get ready for training. Thanks for hanging out.”

“Wait,” Noctis said, cocking his head to the side, “You’re still going to training even though you’re sick?”

Prompto snorted, “What you think the bad guys are gonna be like, ‘oh, sorry, we didn’t know you were sick. We’ll come back another day’?”

“You sound like Gladio,” Noctis said, rolling his eyes. “ _ I _ take every chance I can to avoid training. It’s not that often, but you look enough like shit that if you showed up and said you were feeling pretty bad, Cor’d  _ maybe _ let you leave early.”

“Seriously, dude, it’s just a bit of a cold. I’ll go to training, and then rest until Monday, and I’ll be right as rain, promise!”

Noctis looked at him, hard. “Okay, but I’ll call Iggy to drive us back to the Citadel.”

Prompto couldn’t bring himself to protest.

 

***

 

Cor took one look at him and raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you’re fit to continue training?” He asked.

Prompto shrugged. “I just have a bad cold. I might as well work through it.”

“Don’t push yourself, kid. But if you say you’re alright, I’ll believe you.”

It wasn’t hard to notice that Cor was going easy on him. Even still, Prompto was struggling to keep up. His brain felt like it was wading through maple syrup and his limbs didn’t feel like cooperating. They had only been at it for fifteen minutes before Cor called for a break.

Gratefully, Prompto collapsed on the bench and started chugging the water from his water bottle. 

Everything ached so much, it felt like his muscles were on fire, his throat felt like it had been ripped raw from all the coughing he had been doing, and no matter how many sweaters he wrapped himself in, he always felt like he was freezing. He was feeling just peachy.

“Are you ready to continue?” Cor asked.

Despite his aching muscles and head, he heaved himself to his feet with only a little wobble, and aimed a smile at the Marshal, “Ready as I’ll ever be!”

Cor blew air out of his nose, turning to head back to the training arena. “Then let’s hop to it.”

Prompto tried. He really did. But even with the Marshal going easy on him, his brain didn’t want to work with him. It just took a moment of distraction, and the wooden blade of the Marshal’s practice weapon slammed into Prompto's ribs.

He felt himself crash to the ground and roll to a stop, but his brain didn’t seem to be processing quite right because even though he tried to sit up, his limbs didn’t quite obey him.

Instead, he was hunched over, riding out a series of smoker-like coughs that tore through his body like tissue paper.

When they finally subsided, he tried to wipe away the spit from around his mouth, but his hand missed and he ended up smacking himself on the cheek. 

“Are you-” Cor was standing over him, but when he caught sight of something on Prompto’s face, his expression darkened. “Stay still,” He ordered, dropping to his knees beside the blond. “Do any of your ribs hurt?” He asked, running his hands lightly across Prompto’s chest.

“No…Jus’ jus’ everything else…” Prompto managed breathlessly. “Why?” He tried a second time to wipe away the spit from around his mouth and managed to mostly succeed. He drew his hand back and realized it was smeared with blood.

“We need to get you to a doctor. Stay still,” Cor said, placing a gentle hand on Prompto’s chest.

A wave of tiredness swept over Prompto, and despite his best efforts, he felt it pull himself down into inky blackness.

 

***

 

“-can’t get a hold of them. They’re not answering their phones…” A familiar voice was speaking from somewhere on his right. He  _ knew _ that voice. Why couldn’t he think of that person’s name?

A different person harrumphed. “That’s mildly concerning,” That voice, too, sounded familiar. “I’ll check out the house. The hospital techs are there already. What’s one more person?” Then a set of footsteps walked away.

“Hey, Prompto, you awake?” 

Prompto forced his eyes open. The light was stupidly bright, but he managed to get one lid open a crack. A figure with dark hair and worried blue eyes was staring back at him. “Noct…” He croaked out.

Noctis smiled back, “Hey, dude, how are you feeling?”

Prompto paused, taking mental stock. His head didn’t hurt so much, and he felt pleasantly warm, and his muscles barely ached, and he hadn’t felt the need to cough yet. The only real problem was that he was just so damn tired, and his brain didn’t want to work with him.

“‘M okay,” He replied. “Where ‘m I?” He couldn’t turn his head very much without sending bolts of pain up his neck, so he could only really see Noct’s face, and the plain white ceiling above them.

“You’re at the hospital. Cor said you collapsed at training?” Noctis said, “And he said you, you like, coughed up blood. So he brought you here.”

“‘S just a cold,” Prompto said, but then stopped. That wasn’t right. Coughing up blood wasn’t a symptom of a cold. 

“It was actually a lot more serious than that,” Noctis said, sitting on the edge of Prompto’s bed, “The doctors said it was something called “Legionnaires Disease”. It's from the water you drank. Most water treatment facilities are supposed to screen for diseases like that, so there’s gonna be a whole investigation, but the good news is you’re fine.”

Prompto blinked slowly, trying to take in all that information. “So… so I got sick from the water?” He asked.

Noctis nodded. “Yeah. The place where your neighborhood gets its water from isn’t, like, it isn’t the best? So they’re testing the water now.”

Prompto nodded slowly. “Oh, okay.”

“And, hey, I don’t mean to pry, but, like, do your parents have other phone numbers?”

Prompto’s gaze flicked over to Noctis. 

“Cause, I tried to call the numbers in your contact list, and they were disconnected, so I thought you might have another number we can reach-”

“No,” Prompto interrupted, “I don’t know their number now. They… they forgot to tell me.” He said.

“Oh…” Noctis said, “Okay, well, I guess that means you’ll have to live with me for a bit. The doctors are gonna release you in a few days if everything goes okay, and they want you to be with someone who can watch you regularly.”

Prompto blinked again, trying to figure out if his brain had short-circuited again. “Live… with you?”

“Yeah, I got my own apartment now, so I might as well put it to good use, I figure. And Iggy drops by all the time to cook and clean and stuff, so you don’t have to worry about me accidentally poisoning you with my cooking!” Noctis laughed, then stopped short. “Oh, shit, that was… I’m sorry, I didn’t even think, fuck.”

At this point, Prompto had gotten used to understanding about half of what Noctis said. So he just smiled, closed his eyes, and drifted back to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Ps, the continuation for Me, Myself, and the Demons in My Closet is coming up next! Get hype! We got Promdyn angst on the horizon~


End file.
